I read that the mustard plant Jesus was refering to was dangerous that once it was planted it could be very difficult to control so it would easily take over the garden.  that makes sense to me from the point of view of the parable, that the kingdom of God is a movement that is impossible to control and will take over even when initially started with the smallest of elements.

here is the article on this view.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2000/07/A-Closer-Look-At-The-Mustard-Seed.aspx

However what you are saying doesn't seem to jive with that interpretation and I would really like your opinion on it.  Is possible that the mustard plant Jesus refered to was a weed that can take over your garden?

ted

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your note and the invitation to explore Crossan’s article which I had not seen.
He offers some different ideas:

• that the mustard is invasive – Let’s look  at the context of the story in each gospel.  
The parable of the weeds among the wheat precedes this parable in Mathew so that theme is nearby in Matthew
and Matthew follows the mustard seed parable with a verse about the pervasive movement of yeast and then an interpretation of the Weeds parable
Luke follows with the story of Jesus’ mother and brothers coming after him
Mark follows with reflections on Jesus use of parables.

• that in Mark (alone) the mustard seed is self sown, but the language of the text says “when sown upon the ground...”  implies a sower of some kind – I see that as a very tenuous assertion! I realize that Crossan’s thinking that the mustard is a pest taking over, but that aspect I just cannot see in the text.

• That heaven is compared with a weed – an interesting thought, which does not seem to be the primary purpose of the parable.   Mt and Mk clearly turn on the smallest and greatest comparison – stunning growth that becomes a shelter- home for birds.  Lk  compares a grain with a tree without going so far as naming it the smallest or greatest.

• that it is uncontrolled growth–

• that it becomes the enemy of gardeners – a stretch to take from the parable – maybe Crossan would see it as a secret, hidden truth?
Indeed we could say that Christ’s kingdom does become a danger to the inner and outer forces that want to be in control!

• that birds are the not particularly desired (because they eat seeds that may be planted by the gardener?)Yet in a Gospel context God is watching over the sparows, so it doesn’t seem like they are that malevolent!  Giving them a home seems like self-giving hospitality, even though that may invite risk, inviting other creatures/people even to live intimacy and sharing with us.  Folks who invite homeless people to share with them often experience costs to do so, and it seems to me like the cost of the cross.

Perhaps we want to argue that parables are not a story told to make basically one point.
That would go against the grain of dominant biblical scholarship, but so.

Then pursuing all these possibilities might be interesting,
into which I have already fallen!
But still not the dominant point.

But still , to look for fun, not assuming that this is the intention of Jesus in telling this story,
there is an aspect of Faith and Christ’s kingdom that may invade us
in an uncontrollable way,
that may produce stuff in our lives that we did not ask for (like a cross), and maybe dislike at times.

God grows within us, sometime without our knowing!
Thank you God!
God is at work in our world all the time.
Thank you God!
God’s life will not snuffed out!  
Thank you Jesus for resurrection’s truth!

Yet it is an important truth that when we welcome Jesus
and God and the Holy Spirit to live and grow within us
A great life starts growing
And that is exciting
And filled with hope!
I say to the kingdom of God,
Come invade me like the mustard,
Grow tall within me,
so that my life, that my faith, through your grace,
might be big enough to become a shelter for the birds of the air!
I do not so much fear the invasion of the kingdom
(although a small part of me is afraid)
as pray for it, like the mustard, to GROW within me, within us all!

Marsh

Biblical Garden Seeds

Paul Vonseckendorff <paulvon@hotmail.com> emailed to ask for a

source for Black Mustard seed.

I sent him back searching in the internet and he shares this source!

Rex's Seed Co.

Has lots of Biblical seeds. Take a look!

Will the true mustard plant please stand up?

Question from a visitor:

...Christ spoke of the mustard seed as the tiniest seed from which grows a large tree. This has been puzzling me for a long time, because the mustard seeds we know are definitely NOT the tiniest seeds you can find, and Brassica nigra is an annual, not a tree. However, there is a mustard tree in Israel, Salvadora persica. Its seeds are real tiny, like dust specks. The tree's also known as toothbrush tree. Could that be the tree in question?

Reply:

...you raise a good question.
My primary resource for evaluating what plants are genuinely those of the Bible is a book by Michael Zohary, long-time professor of botany in Jerusalem who wrote a book now out of print called Plants of the Bible.
Zohary is fairly confident that Brassica nigra (black mustard) is the best candidate for the plant to which Jesus referred. It certainly is among the species of Sinapis and Brasica genuses that grow in Israel. The inability to fit our mustard plants into the context of Jesus' story has long troubled commentators and regular Christians.

As for Salvadora persica, I do not know. It is so easy for people to apply a "common" name to a plant without historical or linguistic precedent. Zohary goes to great lengths to explore the identity of plants with the same common name in the middle east, comparing similar sounding names on other Mediterranean languages, so I would doubt that he would have skipped consideration of your proposed plant but he makes no mention of it.

Still, I will be in touch with folks at Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Land Reserve in Israel to see what they think about your suggestion. And I will get back in touch with you. I'll also post your question on our Web site and see what
input I receive.

Marsh

More on mustards...

Curiously, the very next day I received this question

I'm into bonsai as a hobby, and am interested in working with some species with biblical origins. In particular, I'd like to do a bonsai with Brassica nigra, black mustard, because of the gospel references.
Do you know of a source either for an established plant, or seeds?

Reply:

Bonsai biblical plants sounds like fun but I'm afraid that Brassica nigra does not hold a lot of promise. In spite of Jesus' suggestion that mustard grows to be a tree Brassica nigra is a small, leafy plant. The last time I bought the seeds I got them in a 2# bag for making peppery sprouts from Burpees. The leaves - this batch came from a very leafy variety that is a spicy addition to a salad - can also be smaller as on earlier varieties I used to grow from Park Seeds (no longer sold) that looked a lot like buttercups in plant size and shape (much smaller leaves).

Bay Laurel, Dwarf Myrtle, Carob, Dwarf Pomegranate bonsais, I'd love to feature your story on our website. I'd bet others who have limited space - like elders in a nursing home for example, might LOVE the idea. Please stay in touch if you pursue this.
Sorry to pour cold water on your first tree idea. I hope you won't give up on the Bible entering your greenhouse!

The writer responds

Thanks for your response. Indeed, as you point out, this plant is not good for bonsai. However, a person on the IBC (Internet Bonsai Club) suggested that the tree Jesus was referring to might be Salvadora persica, known in Africa as the "toothbrush tree." It is small and twisted, I understand. I haven't seen a pic yet. Have you heard of this?

Any one of you have a picture or information to share???

Discussion participants (with their permission): Ulli Bauer <ulli.bauer@epost.de> and Craig Cowing <ccowing@frontiernet.net>

August 11th 2002

For an exceedingly wise and thorough discussion of these possibilities,

please go to the photo and research material from Lytton John Musselman:

http://web.odu.edu/webroot/instr/sci/plant.nsf/pages/mustard

It directly addresses these questions and more.

The Latest update (Aug. 19, 2002) from Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Preserve in Israel:

Helen Frenkley writes: ...let me share the information I gleaned from Nogah Hareuveni regarding the mustard seed quandary.
There is a story in the Babylonian Talmud (Ktubot 111b) that goes as follows: “Rabbi Yosef told of an event in a place called Shikhin. A man inherited three branches of a mustard plant from his father. One of them split open revealing nine kavim of mustard [seeds], and with its wood [lumber] he built the roof of the potter’s shed.”

The kav is a biblical measure, which, according to the renowned biblical archaeologist, Professor William Albright, is equal to 1.22 liters. Therefore 9 kavim equal just under 11 liters – almost three gallons! - of mustard seeds.

Whether exaggerated prose or poetic license, it is of interest that both the Talmud and the New Testament refer to the lowly mustard plant as something that will grow to great size, whether for birds to perch on, for building material, or as a source of truly fantastic yields. At Neot Kedumim, we see mustard plants grow to a height that allow small birds to perch on the stalk, but we've not used the dried stalks for thatch, or harvested measurable yields of mustard seeds.

As for the “bonsai” suggestion, in Israel Salvadora persica grows only in the area of Ein Gedi in the region of the Dead Sea. It is, therefore, not a common plant and would not have found its way easily into New Testament parables and Talmudic homilies. We at Neot Kedumim stick to Brassica nigra or Brassica alba as the most logical candidates.

Further Thoughts about the mustard seed Parable...

From what I understand, the listeners to Jesus would have been just as confused about mustard seeds growing into trees as the people who are trying to grow mustard trees in their gardens in the 2nd Millenium AD. From what I have been taught, the proper interpretation of this parable is that the mustard seed does not grow into a tree "naturally". For it to grow into a tree it would have to be a supernatural occurence. Jesus was painting a picture of a supernatural work of God, so that his listeners would invision a supernatural mustard tree that was like nothing they had ever seen before.
As he was talking in this parable they would have been saying "huh, a mustard tree? Any bird sitting on it's branches would crush the little bush", but at the end of the parable they would be saying "Wow, the kingdom of heaven is really going to be beyond anything we have ever seen before."

Dean Babuin pammyba@telus.net

April 2009

John Stuart has some other thoughts and reflections...

In researching some botanical information I branched [excuse the pun] into the mustard family, and Google brought up the following website (actually several pages):

http://dqhall59.com/parable_of_the_mustard_seed.htm

Then Google got to your page. I didn't see his web site mentioned on yours. He doesn't have all the answers, either. If you look at his oldest pp he talks about 8' + mustard, but in his '08 material he has since found 12' + plants. How the plants he found could be used to thatch roofs I'm not sure, tho he shows pheasants living in mustard fields. (As to thatching, I work in Central America & am used to both palm branches & -- more commonly -- grass, but I have trouble seeing the wild mustard he shows as thatching.)

What made me think of his page while on yours was the discussion of out-of-control [=wild] growth of mustard plants, & he has photos of both cultivated and wild fields of mustard.

As a cross-cultural anthroplogist, my general assumption is that new plants (i.e., plants in an area new to a group) tend to be given names similar to plants in the old area because it looks similar (but is an unrelated plant) or because it has a similar function (tho it neither looks similar, nor is related), or because someone thought they heard it applied, but is not related, does not look similar, and does not function similarly, all because of a mistake (cf cedar trees in Israel & the US). Another example would be town names. Why is Mexico, Missouri called Mexico. I've been unable to find a likely reason. As a linguist I see this regularly in languages.

I doubt Jesus was talking about any of the plants commonly labeled today as mustard, tho I accept the possibility that one or more of the explanations given on these various websites is either THE correct explanation, or A correct explanation. All I can be certain of is that what Jesus said and meant was quite accurate, tho _I_ may not be sure exactly what He meant by what He said. Here's my summary of what Jesus said. Some seeds are small but produce a plant much larger than the seed. If our faith is like that in some way, I could see things happen much greater than I can expect if I close my mind to what God can do. (I'm not sure that the relationship was the difference in size, or the growth. In either case He is welcome to use me as He pleases.)

John Stuart

My first response:

John, Thanks for your note and the link.

I will forward it to a Biblical Botanist Friend for his reflections and send them back to you.

God's blessings be with you in your life search!
May God grace you with the courage to act on your faith
no matter how small it may be at times.
As Jesus said, the point is our stepping out and ACTING on our faith,
not how big it is...
Nor indeed what the results are.
The main result I seek, like I think you seek,
Is to draw closer to God and surrender into God's service and presence and authority.
Any other results are in God's hands.

Thanks again for your note,
Marsh

Here is a recent discussion, and again your input is invited. We will pass it along to the questioner if you're willing.

We have a lavender plant called "Sarah," it will not be a huge plant and I will be growing it in a nice pot that looks a little "Mediterranean." Do you have a specific biblical reference that you use for your lavender? I understand that the 'Spike' lavender is sometimes referred as spikenard and that lavender can also be 'Nard'? (Song of Solomon and Mark?)

Also since we are in a very different climate from the 'Biblical' areas is it correct to compromise some plants? I know that the cedar tree is huge! There are some very small shrub like plant called 'Dwarf moss cedar' could this be used in place of the 'real' thing?

Reply:

The nard of the Bible is clearly Nardostychys jatamansi, and was imported from India during Biblical times (Michael Zohary: Plants of the Bible, p. 205). It is a member of the genus Valeriana.

Lavendar is a member of the Lamiaceae, but it does share a gift of wonderful aroma and a shape not unlike sage, a Biblical plant because its shape may well have inspired the shape of the menorah. Nigel Hepper in Planting a Biblical Garden, p. 41 commends french lavender, and in his Baker Encyclopedia of Biblical Plants, p. 130, Hepper says he has seen it on sale in Arab markets in Jerusalem and Tiberias. It is definitely a plant that inhabits the Holy Land and Sarah certainly has a pivotal role in the Bible, even though this does not literally make lavender a biblical plant, as in being in the Bible. So you are stretching but it is not an unrelated stretch!

Now for cedars, I so wish I could get my hands on a Cedrus lebani. Indeed C. lebani var. sargenti can be trained to make a bush and so certainly can be kept smaller than the 100' potential of the unbridaled tree. I have seen several of these at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and they are LOVELY.

C. deodara, C. brevifolia (hard to find), and C. atlantica all grow to about 100' feet if allowed to mature. They also grow substantial roots. Sadly, St. John the Divine biblical garden in New York had to saw down their lovely C. lebani because the roots were destroying part of the church. It was a sad day.

Nigel Hepper in Planting... says that plants not from the genus Cedrus, even though called cedars, have no relationship to C. lebani. For example, our church has many arbor vitae "cedars"growing on the property. They are NOT members of the cedrus genus, but they are already growing here, so we make the most of them.

I also wonder what the connection of a dwarf bush would be to the great cedars of Lebanon? But I have the same wonderment about our Thuja occidentalis (arbor vitae). So I guess I'm not a great encourager of the shrub. I definitely compromise on selecting plants, but I try to stick with plants that are botanical cousins - of the same genus - and bear a strong resemblance to the plant of the Bible so people who view the substitute will get a sense of the real biblical plant. But that's just my take. Every gardener is given authority over their own garden - hopefully seeking God's leading!!

When you are looking for books my all-time favorite is Michael Zohary's Plants of the Bible. More easily available and more liberal interpretation are Nigel Hepper's books. Allan Swenson has some very interesting books IN PRINT. Plants of the Bible is fun, and coming soom are two other titles: Flowers of the Bible and Herbs of the Bible. Lytton Musselman recently published a lovely book entiteld, Figs, Dates, Laurels and Myrrh.

Do you have a question?

More information or insight?

Drop us a line today! hkfamily@sovernet

Home... Next... or find your own path!